Which of the “great” composers was the worst orchstrator?
Well, you blew my save naming Schumann. But let me throw one, in his defense. The typical example of bad orchestration is his 4th symphony, where you get an immediate perception of unbalance in the string sections (too heavy, too cumbersome): probably the need for a circular structure in that symphony imposed a monotonous usage of the same instruments in each sector of the circle; considering how S. hated italians (at least, italian composers, except Cherubini), mine is an undeserved defense. A ‘great’ composer who had to rewrite his main work’s orchestration is Bizet. Nothing to add. An urban legend regarding unexecutability of Mussorgski’s Boris should be broken: Rimski built a reflected fortune around it, but the wild, screechy original orchestration was absolutely charming. Much should be said about Puccini’s orchestration: one thing is for sure, he stubbornly wrote everything for the piano and later, sequentially, orchestrated it. Considering that R. Strauss (you can see him in ol
